Thursday, July 31, 2008

Abolish the Connecticut State Police

Institute a Connecticut Highway Patrol. Civilian Oversight is necessary. Ritt Goldstein made [this video] about Civilian Oversight of Police, and the need for it, and just after, was so terrorized by Connecticut police he fled to Sweden seeking political asylum.

MIDDLETOWN — - Months after he was named public safety commissioner, John A. Danaher made a surprising discovery in some old newspaper clips while researching his family history: His great-grandfather, Cornelius J. Danaher Sr., helped establish the Connecticut State Police in 1903.

But home for the top administrator of the Connecticut State Police has traditionally been a less than idyllic place. In March 2007, Danaher walked into an agency rife with controversy, infighting and back stabbing.

Accusations of racism, lingering internal affairs problems and retaliation by managers against troopers who had been whistle-blowers were some of the woes Danaher faced soon after being sworn in.

More than a year later, Danaher, a former U.S. attorney, said he is slowly working to change the department's culture by offering more support and programs to state troopers through education and long-term planning, including new infrastructure

"What I need to do for people who work here is support them as much as I can," Danaher said. "I do think my primary job is to provide support for them in many forms. They need support, more staff, more information technology. We are going to work on all these things."

Danaher revived the department's clergy program, calling on priests and rabbis to help troopers better deal with the turmoil they face on the job. He also supported an in-house peer counseling program, which trains troopers to help their colleagues, particularly after stressful incidents, and has helped to establish a support program for troopers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families.

Union President Steven Rief, who earlier this year stood with dozens of state troopers at the Capitol and urged the legislature to make changes in the troubled department, agrees that things have changed for the better. He just doesn't give Danaher all the credit.

"Certainly, there have been some improvements," Rief said. "But all of those were generated because of the actions the rank-and-file members had taken to get some relief."

The number of internal affairs investigations has gone down. There have also been fewer complaints from members of the public — a development Danaher views as an indication that the department is making progress.

A joint investigation by the Connecticut Attorney General's Office and the New York State Police shed light on problems with the department's internal affairs unit and forced changes in departmental procedures. The report highlighted incidents of domestic violence and drunken driving involving troopers and the supervisory lapses that failed to deal with them appropriately.

Danaher said an eight-page inventory of pending internal affairs cases has been reduced to one page. Many of the worst cases noted in the New York report have been resolved, with troopers either retiring or, in several cases, being fired.

But Rief says morale is still low among patrol troopers who do not believe they have the support of the department and upper management. He said troopers believe "there is still not a level playing field."

"There are still concerns about speaking out and retaliation," he said.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has been critical of the state police's handling of internal affairs cases, said Danaher has "dealt capably and professionally with serious, systemic problems he inherited and always listened carefully and closely to my concerns."

"He has taken significant steps to address problems relating to a small fraction of troopers whose conduct merits internal affairs investigation and action," Blumenthal said.

Like the line of public safety commissioners who came before him, Danaher has no police management experience. His knowledge of law enforcement was based on time in the U.S. attorney's office as a senior litigation counsel, and then as interim U.S. attorney.

Danaher says he was surprised by the scope of the public safety commissioner's responsibilities. Beyond the 1,200-member state police division, there are the building inspectors, fire marshals and elevator inspectors.

"I spend a huge amount of time with all of those things," he said. "This is a multifaceted job."

He was reminded, to his embarrassment, of the political nature of a commissioner's job. He had written a letter to employees, informing them that Gov. M. Jodi Rell had appointed a new building inspector, Milton Gregory Grew, but that notice was a little premature. The appointment did not come to pass.

"All candidates are advised that appointed positions are subject to a series of final checks," Danaher said. "In the end, the governor must be comfortable with the decision to make any appointment. I understand and support the governor's decision in this case."

But the awkward situation pointed out what the commissioners before Danaher had learned: The governor makes the key decisions on appointments.

Danaher is politically savvy enough to know that his job is a political appointment. When he listed his responsibilities, Rell's objectives came first. "She has to balance the interests of all agencies," he said.

Rell publicly praised Danaher's performance, saying he has done what she has asked.

"As we continue to implement cultural changes at the Department of Public Safety, we need a leader who commands respect and knows how to work with all of the interested parties to get things done. I continue to have every confidence in John's abilities to meet those demands," Rell said.

Danaher appears to have developed good relationships with upper management in the state police, including Col. Thomas Davoren, commander of the state police, who was appointed by Rell shortly before Danaher was named commissioner.

"The many support and leadership programs he has worked to put in place for our personnel are only part of what he has accomplished in a relatively short time," Davoren said.

Someone recently gave Danaher a picture of his grandfather in a state police motorcycle sidecar that was probably taken in the early 1940s, when his grandfather was Connecticut's labor commissioner. The picture hangs prominently in his office.

Danaher said his family history with the department is a reminder to him: "Don't mess this up."

"You never want to let these people down," he said. "I'm very hopeful for the future here."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

5% of the World Population; 25% of the World's Prisoners

Skip to 3:30 in the 6 minute clip and you’ll see Senator Jim Webb raising one of my favorite talking points when it comes to educating folks about the so called War on Drugs. Here’s my unofficial transcript of the relevant portion:

Webb: We’ve got an incarceration rate in this country, we’re imprisoning twenty five percent of the world’s prison population with five percent of the world’s population…

Colbert: If you can’t do the time, do not do the crime…

Webb: Well we’ve got 2.38 million people in jail; we want to lock up the bad folks but we need to take a look at what’s happened here and basically when politicians come in and talk about that they’re labeled as soft on crime…

5% of world pop with 25% of its prisoners. There are only a few possible explanations.

Americans are 5 times worse (badder? More criminal?) than everyone else

Monday, July 28, 2008

Simulation of your lungs on a single cigarette

Friday, July 25, 2008

Video Games, Forced Slavery, and Dead Africans

Excerpt:"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.

So where's the connection to Sony? According to Toward Freedom, during the 2000 launch of the PS2, the electronics giant was having trouble meeting consumer demand. To pump out more units, Sony required a significant increase in the production of electric capacitors, which are primarily made with tantalum. This helped drive the world price of the powder from $49/pound to a whopping $275/pound, resulting in the frenzied scouring of the Congolese hills known for being ripe with coltan.

Sony has since sworn off using tantalum acquired from the Congo, claiming that current builds of the PS2, PSP and PS3 consoles are sourced from a variety of mines in several different countries.

But according to researcher David Barouski, they're hardly off the hook.

"SONY's PlayStation 2 launch...was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999," he explained. "SONY and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability, because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know. But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."

Currently, the Playstation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all-time, having sold through over 140 million units. [more]

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Taxpayer funded Police Crime Wave?

Do you want to score drugs?

Lt. William White (Photo: New Haven Register)

Well, Connecticut cops might have the strongest drugs at the best prices. Want to score "jail bait"? Again you might want to ask a Connecticut Police Officer. There are a greater percentage of good officers, why are they so often silent?

Should police be able to be child and sex predators, thieves, rapists, thugs, and murderers while on duty paid with tax dollars?

The high ranking Connecticut State Police Officer who shot his wife dead, shot her lawyer on court steps, and then committed suicide had about $200,000 or so that could be verified, unexplained.

When police have unrestricted access to drugs, drug dealers, criminals, and taxpayer cash, they commit crimes. Check out the first link in [this post]. It shows there is a pattern and practice of police officers to break the law and cover their tracks.

200 Troopers descended on the Judiciary Committee in Hartford complaining how badly they were treating each other. The helicopter pilot of "Trooper 1" had made numerous terrorist threats of killing officers, himself, and blowing up aircraft and remained flying! What about the public, don’t we count?

Is there still "Gay Bashing" going on within the ranks of the Connecticut State Police? [post]

Dear Public Safety Committee Connecticut Legislators, do you think a special hearing should be held for witnesses to come forward and individual cases of abuse investigated?

A Confidential State Registered Police Informant, Todd Vashon, talking about beating up police officers for other police officers, committing crimes, terrorizing and assaulting citizens, and his lack of need to have a driver's license, car insurance, an inspected vehicle, or even valid plates to drive on Connecticut roads:

It seems it is ok for a police officer in Connecticut to drive around with 14 year old prostitutes, harass and threaten citizens, and to drive drunk and leave the scene of accidents. [more] Enfield Officer Timothy Vergean's 14 year old prostitute girlfriend attacked landlord Donny Christmas and only Christmas faced a year in prison, no deals:

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A post called:

"The Three Horsemen of Moral Hypocrisy" from the Hypocrisy blog [found here]

Excerpt:For those of you who need a review, we’ll start with Senator Vitter. During his campaign for the senate, the good Mr. Vitter was accused of carrying on a rather lengthy tryst with a French Quarter prostitute. At the time he labeled the accusation as “absolutely and completely untrue.” It was after he was elected that his telephone number was found in the phone records of the famous ‘DC Madam.’ At that point denial seemed silly, so instead he pulled the rehabilitation and reconciliation routine out of his pocket. “Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling,” said Vitter. Signing on to write discrimination into the Constitution must be his way of purging his guilt.

Connecticut and "The Big Depression"

Darlene Larson went to the Portland Food Bank one July morning to donate some clothes, and she left with a shopping cart full of food to share with her 6-year-old son.

Larson, 52, is like a lot of the new clients at Connecticut food banks and pantries these days — familiar faces who used to stop by with donations but are now forced to visit to meet their own needs.

Rising food and gasoline prices are hurting minimum-wage working families who now have to choose between a gallon of milk for the children or gas in the tank to get to their jobs, officials at the food bank say.

And the need is stretching beyond Connecticut's cities and poorer areas to more affluent towns along the shoreline and in the Farmington Valley.

Patty Dowling is the executive director of The Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries, which provides food to 11 shoreline towns including Old Saybrook, Clinton and others along the Route 9 corridor. She said that since January, more than 5,000 people have registered at the pantry — a 40 percent increase over 2007.

"It's difficult to see moms and dads coming in here a lot of times with tears in their eyes saying things like, 'I can't believe I'm here. I used to donate to this pantry. I had a life that meant I didn't need to come here,'" Dowling said.

"Some people think this is unbelievable that it's happening on the shoreline because they have this image of it being a wealthy, well-to-do area. However, it is very expensive to live here."

Dowling describes her new clients as "newly poor" or "people who were making it last year" but fell on hard times because of cost increases for food, gas and utilities. The need becomes even greater when clients become ill, get laid off from their jobs, go through a divorce or lose their homes to foreclosure, food bank officials said.

From January to June, the United Way of Connecticut's 211 information line received 8,359 calls from people looking for help finding free or affordable food, nearly 2,000 more than in the same period last year, said Malia Sieve, director of community results for the 211 line.

"We're finding that this is not just an issue that is facing low-income families," Sieve said. "It's creeping into the middle class."

Food bank officials also are serving families who receive food stamps. Many of those families stop by the pantries at the end of the month when they run out of food.

"It's what all of us are feeling at the grocery store and gas pump," said Nancy Carrington, executive director of the Connecticut Food Bank, which provides food to six of the state's eight counties. "But people who were on the edge before are now being pushed over the edge. It's too much to tolerate."

After her divorce last year, Larson found a job as a modeling teacher and was able to support her young son. Then, Larson's employer cut back her hours to four per week during the slow summer months, leaving her with a $240 monthly paycheck. That, added to the monthly $160 child support and $200 her son receives in disability from his father, covered her monthly $200 rent but left her with $400 to pay the rest of her bills.

Any extras this summer — a water pistol her son saw at the store or a ride to the beach — are not possible, she said.

"I donate what I can now," Larson said while handing over a bag of clothes to Ruth Maio, the executive director of Portland's food bank. "But today, I've got a list of my own."

A morning at the food bank in Portland — a town of about 9,000 residents with a median income of about $65,000 — is a snapshot of what's happening at pantries across the state. Elderly men and women on fixed incomes come in looking for a month's worth of staples. Single mothers with children receive bags of food and are encouraged to sort through a table full of specialty items like organic pasta, gourmet salsas, herbal teas and chunky loaves of bread.

To Larson, the volunteers at the food bank wear many hats. On this day, Maio is a grocer, making sure Larson gets her monthly supply of food. Maio is also a waitress, offering Larson fresh pizza someone brought in for clients, and a personal shopper, outfitting Larson in donated dresses and suits for job interviews Larson — who said she has college degrees in psychology and mathematics — has lined up for the following week.

A purple dress and blue suit with pinstripes make the cut.

"They say dark blue is a good color to wear for an interview. It shows you're responsible," Larson said while modeling the suit for Maio seconds after stepping out of a bathroom at the food bank. Those seated at a table nodded their heads in approval.

"You'd make a good salesperson," Larson said to Maio.

In April, Maio had 156 clients at the food bank. That increased to 195 in May and to 216 in June. For additional help, particularly for the elderly, Maio has signed up with the national Angel Food Ministries, a program that offers a month's worth of food for a single person for $30.

There are no income requirements and anyone can sign up for Angel Ministries, which has 15 host sites across Connecticut. Maio said she's already had 35 applicants.

"I was just so worried about what the fall and winter months would do to our seniors," Maio said.

In Greater Hartford, food bank officials also are getting creative in response to increasing numbers of new clients at pantries "in towns people don't expect," said Gloria J. McAdam, president and chief executive officer for Foodshare Inc., which serves Hartford and Tolland counties.

In Enfield, McAdam said, the number of families served has nearly doubled, from 180 to 300, and the need is up 14 percent in Avon. Manchester's primary social services agency — the Manchester Area Conference of Churches — saw 169 new families in April, a "phenomenal number," McAdam said, because their total caseload is about 1,000.

"And these are families they've never had contact with before," McAdam said.

In response, Foodshare is aggressively seeking donations, which are up by 4 percent, and cutting back in some areas to make up for one of their biggest challenges: the cost to transport food in trucks that run on expensive diesel fuel. The organization has overspent its transportation budget already, she said.

Foodshare is also working with local grocery stores on getting meat donations, an effort that has yielded 200 to 300 pounds of meat for needy families per week, McAdam said.

For years, a small food pantry was all that was needed in Madison — until recently, when volunteers began running out of food as the numbers of those in need seemed to double.

In 2007, there were 335 visits to the pantry, said Wendy Larson, Madison's social services coordinator. Since January, the number of visits is already at 323, with 78 in May alone, she said.

"We were finding that they just couldn't keep it stocked," Larson said of the pantry. Town officials reacted by joining forces with the Connecticut Food Bank, and a local church agreed to provide space for a larger food bank.

Larson said they hope to have the new facility — with more shelf space and refrigerators for perishable food — operating by September. And along with that effort, Larson said she'll continue to educate Madison residents that there are struggling families in their community trying to meet basic needs.

"We need to make our community more aware that it does happen here," Larson said. "And fortunately, we have a generous community. They respond when there's a need."

Contact Alaine Griffin at agriffin@courant.com

* * * ** * * *

My gripe with Connecticut, Public Corruption and Connecticut State Police can land home and business owners off the taxpayer lists to those living off of tax dollars. [more]

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Live Free or Die

or just save money on some of the basics?

Text with video:I wanted to do a little comparison between the outrageous cost of living in Connecticut as compared to New Hampshire. You can save about $20/carton of cigarettes by buying in New Hampshire as compared to Connecticut.

If you go from Marlboro cigarettes to the cheapest brand, you can save about $30/carton.

$12 or more per tank can be saved by not paying the Connecticut mob tax on gas fill ups.

The store in the video is called the Rt. 63 Country store 220 Northfield Dr, Hinsdale, NH 03451, and is about an hour or so drive up from Enfield, CT 06082. Rt 63 phone # 603 336 5459

Financial 'super cop' role for Fed

In capitalist America, the idea that financial markets are best left alone has been dearly held. And it has helped make America rich.

But the bomb-shell of the near collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns and the credit crunch has exploded some of that confidence in self-policing markets.

Now, the financial system here in the United States could get its biggest shake-up since the Great Depression of 1933.

Size matters

On Thursday, America's two most powerful economic figures - the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -addressed a Congressional panel on "Systematic Risk and Financial Markets".

They argued the case for a new type of regulation that would look at the bigger picture.

Rather than the type of institution, the key factor would be its importance within the financial system.

The problem is you are always regulating the past

Diane Swonk, chief economist, Mesirow Financial

Mr Paulson told the panel that the Bear Stearns rescue and the market turmoil it unleashed showed the "outdated nature" of the financial regulatory system.

"This has convinced me that we must move much more quickly to update our regulatory structure and improve both market oversight and market discipline," he said.

Mr Bernanke told Congress he supported that push for change.

"The financial turmoil is ongoing, and our efforts today are concentrated on helping the financial system return to more normal functioning.

It is not too soon, however, to think about steps that might be taken to reduce the incidence and severity of future crises."

He went on to suggest Congress may need to enact new laws to increase the Federal Reserve's powers.

Tectonic shift

This would take America's central bank into a new sphere.

Wall Street has traditionally preferred light touch regulation

Traditionally, the Fed has regulated commercial banks but investment banks have fallen under the oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

So far, investment banks have been more lightly regulated thanks to a set of voluntary codes, meanwhile hedge funds have barely been regulated at all.

But the tectonic plates of US regulation shifted when the Federal Reserve stepped in to bail-out investment bank Bear Stearns.

In March, the 85-year-old investment firm experienced a run on the bank.

In order to avoid a bankruptcy that could have destabilised the entire financial system, Mr Bernanke helped negotiate, over a single weekend, for rival JP Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns.

With that, the door to greater Fed regulation of investment banks was opened.

At the same time, Mr Bernanke addressed the wider liquidity crunch on Wall Street with an extraordinary measure.

He pumped more cash into the system by offering the nation's biggest investment banks access to low-cost overnight loans, usually reserved for commercial banks only.

It was a measure that was meant to be temporary, but Mr Bernanke says he may well be extended into 2009.

Kneejerk regulation?

There is fear that the new regulations will go too far.

Diane Swonk, chief economist based in Chicago for Mesirow Financial recalls the last big regulatory push - in the wake of the collapse of energy trading giant Enron in 2001.

Analysts warn that new regulations could go too far

Thousands of Americans lost jobs and life savings with the collapse of Ken Lay's company but the reaction was ill-thought out, says Ms Swonk:

"The problem is you are always regulating the past, that's what happened with Sarbanes-Oxley. Much of Sarbanes-Oxley was overkill. I hope there is enough memory of that for Congress to tread carefully."

Catherine Crier and others in the Free Press Movement

Why is corporate media bad and why is Indie Media good? The 7 minute plus clip of the speaker that spoke before Catherine Crier at the June 6 - 8 Free Press Event held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minnesota, [click here] for that video, which is Part I. The senior producer for the Phil Donahue show on MSNBC tells why MSNBC's most watched show was pulled, over telling the truth, early, about the invasion of Iraq. Do you want news, or do you want your news, corporation censored?

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.comTwo cameramen to produce a documentary or series for the internet, movie project, or for television, inquire to Francis C. P. Knize email: frankknee@aol.com or please email me. Thank you.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

when they complain about vandals, break-ins, teen prostitutes doing business within eye shot of children, heroin, crack cocaine, and marijuana dealing going on 24 hours a day interrupting taxpayers' sleep?

Peter Coukos leaves me a voicemail:

My daughter, Sarah, was 14 at the time this message was left. Coukos caught me out in my back yard and started slapping me in the back of the head, saying "Turn around coward, I want your daughter to get on her knees and blow me."

I had already been attacked on my property by a police informant, only I was arrested, and I ended up getting a year in prison for pepper spraying him, ending the beating I took in that incident. So, if I ended up defending myself against the punches I was taking from Coukos, again, only I would be arrested.

Peter Coukos was allegedly offered help in obtaining a Connecticut pistol permit for terrorizing me and my daughter out of Connecticut, to attack me, and to try to set me up for another false arrest. Coukos drove drunk while slamming his car into an African American woman over a racist road rage incident, is known to have abused, or is still abusing alcohol, crack cocaine, marijuana, prescription drugs, and has been, or is a chronic frequenter of prostitutes.

[click here] for Steven G. Erickson pictures and for the story of the beginning of the saga. Freespeech.com links in post no longer work in that international injustice busters webpage.

Video where I reflect on what happened:

* * * *

US Marine arrested by Connecticut Police after waking up with 13 stab wound for causing a disturbance while being stabbed. Felon on probation, David J. Taylor, wasn't even violated on probation for almost killing 3 people. Judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and elected officials band together to retaliate against "mouthy citizens".
[video and more]

Ritt Goldstein helped organize a hearing held at the Hartford Capitol Dec. 1996. The Judiciary Committee Legislators heard from international experts on Civilian Oversight of Police and victims of Connecticut State and local police misconduct. Ritt fled to Sweden seeking political asylum soon after making [this video] being so terrorized by police.

The below was circulated to the Hartford Connecticut Police Department, the State of Connecticut State Police Capitol Guards, and various Troops of the Connecticut State Police to arrest me on sight for blogging critical of the Connecticut Governor. I was warned by a retired Hartford Police Officer to not appear in public as police planned to beat me up and charge me with resisting arrest and assaulting police officers to spend 5 to 15 years in prison. Free Speech is not Free. Ken Krayeske a UConn law student was arrested on sight for being on the list as he appeared in public.

(The below was emailed to the recipients listed at the bottom of this blog)

To whom it may concern on any legislative committing regarding children:

Before 9/11 police were recruiting citizens who considered becoming police officers and actual criminals, felons, criminals on probation, prostitutes, vandals, drug dealers, thugs, and thieves for help with revenue collection, police rackets, narcotics distribution, retaliation, property confiscation, recruiting targets into sexual slavery, removing legal guns from legal gun owners, taking children from good families based on deceit, false allegations, police perjury, fraud, and identifying potential citizen leaders for when the US Constitution was to become null and void. Should any citizen end up arrested, in prison, beat up, dead, and/or have to flee to a foreign country seeking political asylum just for talking to elected officials, or contacting reporters about their cases, suffering after police brutality, rape, robbery, assault, judicial misconduct, and/or public corruption?

Please check out what happened to Ritt Goldstein after he documented the build up to the police state requiring rigged courts. Ritt Goldstein fled to Sweden after making this video in front of a special legislative committee in Hartford, Connecticut:http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9b1_1206830084

I, Steven G. Erickson, built a contracting business over 2 decades, decided to live with my wife in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, instead of Europe, fixed up rental properties up from a boarded up condition, and wanted to raise my daughter in Connecticut who is in the top 1% in the intelligence quotient.

I found out that police prior to 9/11 were looking to eliminate the self-employed and small business owners if they were not Mafia, police, lawyer, judge, corporate, or officially affiliated. I was asked to break laws for police, target the self-employed, gun owners, and those who would be a problem after the US Constitution was nullified to become a police informant. I refused. I was then retaliated upon and terrorized by police.

Police then were listening to all my phone calls, reading all my emails, and Stafford Connecticut Police Officer would repeat word for word what my wife and I talked about in our bedroom. He threatened me and later assaulted me for "the crime" of feeding my wife macaroni and cheese because he said it is fattening because it contains butter. Officer Prochaska's nickname is "Fat Frank", ironically, and at the time he allegedly lived with his mother. My wife was a model in Europe and she showed no interest in the cop that stalked us.

I was told by Stafford Springs Police Constable Prochaska and Stafford Connecticut Resident State Trooper Mulcahey that I was denied all police protection and service, that I was kicked out of Connecticut, and that I would be beaten up, arrested, maybe take my last ride in handcuffs with my teeth kicked out in a police cruiser, or the rest of my life in prison, if I did not shut my mouth, not talk to elected officials or anyone at the newspapers. I was also told that my wife could stay.

Police and their informants harassed the crap out of me for an extended period of time. I was told I would never see my daughter again if I did not do as I was ordered by police. I found out my father was giving police information and that they wanted him to prevent me from ever seeing my daughter again if I did not give up my pursuit of justice after suffering police and judicial misconduct. After being railroaded to prison for resisting being robbed by a police informant who threatened my life, attacked me with a knife, telling me he would kill me if I did not turn over my wallet, I got a year in prison for pepper spraying the criminal who tried to rob and kill me on my own property.

Is everyone in American being spied on by the government and the NSA? Does it cost $40,000 to $50,000 each for solid state memory and all the manpower and infrastructure to spy on each of us, 24/7 every year?

The reason I am contacting elected officials on the children's committee as there might be less lying, scumbag lawyers. Should children have to pay for generations for this police state abuse? Should you allow America to be worse than the former USSR could ever dream of being?

Do you have any questions, or do you want to know names and dates about anything I have talked about? Do you care about America and Children? Whose side are you on?

My daughter has not called me "Daddy" or said "I love you" since I was railroaded to prison and my father came to me saying that I had a choice to stop pursuing police and the court system about misconduct and misappropriation of funds or never talk to or see my daughter again. What kind of "freedom, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" is this? Why should US taxpayers fund this sort of police state abuse and domestic spying? Does this benefit, or harm, families, children, the economy, and America itself?

Please click on the letters to former US President George W. Bush, and
the answers I got, below to make them bigger, and readable. There was a
war on the self-employed pre-9/11. Police were recruiting police
informants to make you lose your small business, home, family, job,
retirement, and way of life. International Corporate Organized Crime,
Bankers, and the Elite in the US have been working decades to break you
all down to the point that they can roll in police, the military, and
their foreign corporate/banker occupation troops all over America. Your
guns, your money, your family, and your way of life is going to be
seized to better serve the international elite.

I wrote Bush 9-15-01 and got word back he actually read my letter into
him. I was attacked on my property 10-11-01. A police informant, a
violent felon, threatened me for 2 weeks, stalked me, and then attacked
me on my property. Only I was arrested and I was sentenced to a year in
prison for pepperspraying the felon who attacked me with a knife on my
property from behind in my dark driveway. A man on probation who raped a
3 year old baby was not given prison, but I was. Who is more a danger
to society, a home owning, taxpaying, family raising small business
owner or a child rapist?

The corporate occupation has deemed the American way of life a danger to
their existence. You have paid taxes for them to take everything, fly
armed drones over your head, and occupy your property and your country
with armed troops who answer to the UN and Corporate Organized Crime,
not you. I, Steven G. Erickson, learned this a decade plus ago. I was
then punished by the Police State for my knowledge and non-cooperation.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Letter Mailed off Today

“Give
me your wallet or I’m going to kill you”, was what Brian C. Caldwell, a
convicted felon, told me after jumping me on my Stafford Springs,
Connecticut, property. Since Caldwell was a police informant, only I was
arrested for having pepper sprayed him to end the beating I was taking.
I got a year in prison! Should my case be looked into, should I be
pardoned, and should the US Constitution now apply in America?

If
a citizen buys a home, tries to run a business, or just wants to live,
raise a family, pay taxes, and live the American Dream, it may be
against the wishes of those who are in corrupt State, or other, Police
Department, and those who illegally run most of our US Court System.
Should “Government = Mafia”? Should families be destroyed for profit?

I
received a year in prison for resisting being mugged on my own
property. The mugger was given immunity for committing felonies to
maliciously prosecute me. The stated goal of police was to pay up to a
$10,000 bounty to have me beaten up, killed, and/or railroaded to prison
for what I had written in newspapers critical of them, for proposing
court reform and civilian oversight of police legislation to elected
officials. The police were also angry at me for getting “mouthy” about
Bryn Ouellette (sp.?), a teen who illegally moved into my basement and
was building pipe and propane bombs and setting devices off near where
I, and the Sabatassos (sp.?) and their 4 young children slept. Police
were spending tax dollars to harass me, spy on me, and to make sure I
lost my house, business, daughter and the sum total of my life’s work,
forever.

I was threatened with arrest and prison by police
officers if I did not leave Connecticut and shut my mouth prior to the
mugging. Should mostly White, and male, police officers decide they want
to take anyone’s wife, girlfriend, business, home, or freedom, just
because they feel like it. Should police be able to lie, rape, cheat,
steal, beat, and even kill with almost absolute immunity? Should our US
courts be a rubber stamp on abuse?

Should those who run our
courts be able to hire their friends and family in made up positions to
make 6 figures, get a cushy pension, and maybe have to do little, to no
work, and maybe not have to even show up? The Judicial Branch is
wrecking America.

Why are Americans paying to be abused, to have
their families broken up, the economy ruined, and to have honest
taxpayers taken out of the taxpaying role, by falsely arresting,
imprisoning, fining, and confiscating of property as many Americans as
can be gotten away with? Should police be targeting “mouthy” individuals
or criminals and crime?

I
mailed a letter to President Bush on 9-15-01 discussing the problems I
was having. I was then attacked on my property 10-11-01 by a police
informant. I pepper sprayed my attacker in my dark driveway. Police were
right there to arrest me. If the Bush administration was not so
deceitful and arrogant, I think I and so many other citizens would not
have been ripped off needlessly and abused. Our economy and national
reputation would also be better. My letter to Bush:

If you click on it and save it, you can use a view to make it bigger.

The HUD response telling me Bush actually read my letter:

In the follow up report I am called the victim:

I
was current on mortgage payments on 3 rental properties. Two of which I
fixed up from a boarded up condition spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars and years of my labor. I had also built up a contracting
business over 2 decades. My reward was that a strong armed robber, a
mugger, a felon, could threaten my life while demanding money in my own
dark driveway, beat me, and he is not arrested, I am for using pepper
spray and I go to prison.

Women who are raped, or sexually assaulted by police, can then be
arrested if they try to report the officer for police misconduct and/or
sexual assault. Police can refuse to investigate crimes such as rape,
robbery, assault, vandalism, etc. In the State of Connecticut Police
Officers can simply be lazy, arrogant, and terrorize citizens when they
are too lazy to do their jobs. I was threatened with loss of my
marriage, daughter, home, business and told I was kicked out
Connecticut. This did happen and I went to prison, after being a target
of police. If you think the 24/7 domestic spying makes you safer, think
again.

Chris Kennedy, and I, lodged complaints against Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan. Kaplan is okay with a man on probation raping a 3 year old, but is not okay with citizens who exercise Free Speech, expose public corruption, police brutality, or complain about the rigging and bias of the courts to harm society, not help it. Going to the State of Connecticut Judiciary Committee Legislators, made out of mostly lawyers is an act of futility. Reporting felonies to officials, where the officials do nothing is a crime. Here we expose Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan as the Devil's Minion:

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The economic mismanagement of the US?

Abu Dhabi buys into NY landmark

The majority stake in one of New York's most famous landmarks, the Chrysler Building, has been sold to a business arm of Abu Dhabi's government.

Prudential Financial confirmed it had sold its 75% stake in the Manhattan art deco skyscraper to the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC).

The council, which has not commented on the deal, was reported to have paid about $800m (£400m) for the stake.

The remaining 25% of the building is owned by property firm Tishman Speyer.

Tishman Speyer will continue to manage the building.

Prudential spokeswoman Theresa Miller confirmed that ADIC had bought its share of the skyscraper, according to the Associated Press.

Sovereign investments

In recent months, a number of iconic buildings on Manhattan's skyline have been the target of Middle Eastern investors.

The investment has often come from sovereign wealth funds, which are established by governments who have large surpluses of money - typically earned from oil and gas revenues - which they wish to invest abroad.

In June, a Dubai fund, Boston Properties and Goldman Sachs paid $2.8bn for the General Motors Building.

Last November, another investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), made a $7.5bn investment in US banking giant Citigroup.

The ADIA is one of the world's richest sovereign funds, with an estimated $800bn of assets under management.

But governments in France, Germany, and the US have raised concerns that these funds could use their wealth to buy up key strategic assets or exert political leverage on Western companies and governments.

The International Monetary Fund's working group on sovereign wealth funds met in Singapore on Wednesday to try and address those concerns and to draw up a voluntary code of conduct for the industry.

Analysts say energy-rich governments in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and other Gulf countries are taking advantage of falling prices to invest in property and financial firms around the world.

Middle Eastern investors have spent $1.8bn this year on commercial US property, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics.

The Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington Avenue was designed by William Van Alen and completed in 1930 for car maker Chrysler.

At 319m (1,046ft) high, the building was the world's tallest skyscraper before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building a year later.

Connecticut Constitution Convention Campaign

There is bid rigging, nepotism, obstruction of justice, and the defrauding of taxpayers in the Connecticut Judicial Branch:

Andrea Wilson and other judicial branch employee blow the whistle at the Bridgeport Superior Court in Connecticut. It was an official ethics hearing regarding openness and ethics in the judicial branch. The judicial branch brass sealed the public comments and rigged a survey of the judicial branch to give themselves straight A's [video exclusive]

The Connecticut State Police and town departments can use tax dollars to pay Connecticut State Registered Police Confidential Informants to beat up and even murder "mouthy" citizens, for personal vendettas, and for retaliation. Police in Connecticut cover up police misconduct using tax dollars to ruin taxpayers, break up families, and terrorize the general public. A police informant, Todd Vashon, under oath about typical informant policies:

Ritt Goldstein a former prominent Democrat, business owner, from Fairfield County Connecticut assembled international experts on Civilian Oversight of Police and victims of police misconduct and judicial abuse in Connecticut. The hearing held in front of the Judiciary Committee Legislators at a special session at the Hartford Capitol in Connecticut:

Ritt was so terrorized by Connecticut police he fled the US soon after making the above video to seek political asylum in Sweden!

Should Homeland Security and Plain Cloths Police Officers be installed in schools to interrogate 13 year old girls and ask them if they are lesbians while terrorizing, and interrogating them in private interrogation rooms at schools?:

[click here] for the Stephen Murzin story. Murzin is a US Marine that was stabbed 13 times, and was then arrested by Connecticut Police when he woke up in a hospital for having caused a disturbance being stabbed. The felon on probation that stabbed Stephen and two others was not even violated on probation by a Connecticut judge and prosecutor for almost killing three people!

NEW HAVEN - A former engineer for the state Department of Transportation has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges as part of a bribery investigation.

Christopher Gallucci, who served as an assistant district engineer in the southern part of the state, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to solicit and accept corrupt payments, and impede the functions of the Internal Revenue Service.

Prosecutors say Gallucci acknowledged that beginning in 1997, he and others received trips, hotel rooms, meals and cash from a company doing business with the DOT, in exchange for helping the contractor get payments from the state, and allowing the company to benefit from a favorable lease arrangement.

Gallucci admitted that he received bribes worth almost $30,000, and failed to pay taxes on that income, prosecutors said. The company involved has not been identified.

Interesting Developments

Canada ruling boosts US deserter

A Canadian court has ordered the country's refugee board to re-examine an American deserter's rejected attempt for asylum in Canada.

The court ruled that the board made mistakes when it turned down Joshua Key's claim for asylum.

Mr Key served in Iraq in 2003 before deserting to Canada with his family while on leave in the US.

The ruling could affect scores of other US soldiers sheltering in Canada who have refused to fight in Iraq.

Possible deportations

Joshua Key served in Iraq as a US combat engineer in Iraq in 2003.

He claims that he witnessed several cases of abusive acts against civilians and the killing of innocent people.

While on leave at home in Oklahoma, he decided that he would not return to duty and took his family to Canada where he applied for asylum.

Although the Canadian refugee board found Mr Key credible, it rejected his application, saying that unless his claims of abuse constituted a war crime, they did not justify his desertion from the US army.

In its ruling, the federal court has disagreed with that analysis, saying that being forced to participate in military misconduct, even if it stops short of a war crime, may support a claim to protection in Canada.

There are at least 200 American war deserters in Canada and many face deportation after their asylum cases were also rejected.

Joshua Key's lawyer said that the ruling may help their cases.

The Canadian government is reviewing the court's decision and has not said whether it will appeal.

Friday, July 04, 2008

The 4th

Thursday, July 03, 2008

From DemocracyNow.Org

Winter Soldier

March 13-16, 2008: US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War in Echo of 1971 Hearings

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans gathered in Maryland to testify at Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, the event was modeled after the historic 1971 Winter Soldier hearings held during the Vietnam War.

Although Winter Soldier was held just outside the nation’s capital, it was almost entirely ignored by the American corporate media. A search on the Lexis database found that no major television network or cable news network even mentioned Winter Soldier over the weekend, neither did the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times or most other major newspapers in the country. The editors of the Washington Post chose to cover Winter Soldier but placed the article in the local section.

Democracy Now!‘s coverage of Winter Soldier includes a live broadcast from the proceedings, as well as extensive excerpts of soldiers’ testimony.